The Blum Center was established three years ago through a founding gift from Blum, a San Francisco financier and philanthropist, as a multi-disciplinary initiative established to combat poverty. Headquartered at UC Berkeley, it also involves a partnership with UC Davis and UC San Francisco.

Blum is chair of the University of California's Board of Regents and is the husband of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. Ah so that's how that got Mr. Gore there.

He also is an investment banker who serves as chairman of Blum Capital Partners L.P. and co-chairman of Newbridge Capital LLC.

"I believe UC Berkeley can have a singular effect in the fight to alleviate human suffering," Blum said in a statement.
"If you look at the dangerous political divisions in today's world, you will find that most extremism has its roots in poverty and lack of education. We hope that our center will help train the next generation of leaders to be dedicated to alleviating poverty in the developing world."

The 1:30 p.m. event will take place outside the historic Naval Architecture Building on the north side of the UC Berkeley campus. It will be followed by students presenting their wide-ranging research directed at combating global poverty.